Word: draconian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Behind any persuasion, of course, must be the belief that a nation will take draconian steps. But the capability must be there for credibility. The White House is nearly convinced that we must apply some kind of "bloodless military pressure" to lodge that message in the minds of allies and enemies. But a central question remains: Would Carter ever send U.S. forces into real combat for the national interest...
...draconian measures have first hit the housing industry. Last week the National Association of Home Builders called an emergency meeting in Washington to bewail the high mortgage rates. The group's economist, Michael Sumichrast, darkly predicted that housing starts, which ran at a 1.9 million annual rate in September, will soon be cut in half. The soaring cost of money, he claimed, has already forced 10 million Americans to abandon temporarily plans for that dream house...
...years would alone be sufficient to discourage borrowing and spending. Through the first half of 1979, business was actually slowing somewhat as a result of bad winter weather and the gasoline squeeze, which together put a crimp in consumer purchasing. The Fed even began to fear that its seemingly draconian interest rates were pushing the economy headlong into recession...
...volunteer juries have turned out to be sensitive and imaginative. They have handed out some less-than-draconian but effective decrees: ordering a 17-year-old to join an athletic team; rebuking a father for belittling his son and "being part of the problem"; instructing a youth to write a letter of apology to a policeman...
...avoid such extremes, the U.S. may be forced to take strong measures to bring down inflation. Grove and Washington Economic Consultant Robert Nathan reluctantly vote for a "quick and dirty" solution that would include draconian measures. Says Grove: "The ideal program would be very sharp fiscal and monetary policies buttressed at the outset by wage and price controls. The controls would be cosmetic, to convince people that the program is really going to work." Okun scorns this as the "trillion-dollar cure," meaning that it would cost the nation that much in lost production. He believes that such a solution...